skippy's friday nite music club

licking the boot that kicks them...

...if you are a member of congress who has taken an oath to protect the constitution, you better allow yourself to be voted out of office before you violate your oath. being afraid of a fascist 30-second attack ad is no excuse.

...

the blue dogs are forcing real democrats, real americans, to take them out. if you can't stand up for our rights against a president as stupid and unpopular as george w. bush, then you are not worthy to represent us, to lead us, or to even be spoken to in a respectful tone of voice.

booman has said before that democratic primaries are the most promising way to take the bush dogs down. i am in complete agreement, but i've been loathe to profile any of these jackasses thus far. simple reason -- politicians in general make me sick. this holds from awol on down, regardless of party affiliation, but i have grown even more disgusted with the dems than the republicans. not that i'm turning rightward -- most republican politicians are trash, so i expect them to act accordingly, and they almost always do. the dems are not trash (well, maybe holy joe is), so i expect better from them. however, they seem content to make their mark by holding hands with their republican trash counterparts and singing "whistle while you work" as they give awol just about everything he really really wants.

what the f&#k is that? do they want left-leaning yet independent voters like me to pick third-party candidates? because listen up, folks, if the dem primary strategy don't work, then voting for someone who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning out of spite is the only other tactic available to me -- and i will employ it if i think i have no choice, screw the charlie browns who will wail about me throwing elections to the republicans. and before anyone screams in my ear over this...

i plan to march for impeachment in d.c. on september 15. this will be my third march in d.c. this year. the first two didn't accomplish anything. this one better damn well accomplish something, or i am done with the democrats permanently. i don't mind that they jerk off all the time -- washington's atmosphere engenders that. but what's the point in jerking off if you can't get results?

down the penrose lane

leona helmsly fails to leave $12 million to skippy

trouble, her pet white maltese, will continue to live in the lap of luxury after being left a $12 million (£6m) trust fund in her owner's will.

trouble, a former helmsley advertising star and a dog with a track record of biting members of staff, came out significantly better than nearly all of mrs helmsley's family in the will. two of the so-called queen of mean's grand-children received nothing.

mrs helmsley, who died this month aged 87 at her home in connecticut, also stipulated that trouble should eventually be buried beside her in the helmsley mausoleum.

well, on second thought, if that's a condition, we're happy skippy didn't get the money.

this is by no means the only eccentric item in the will, although the dog, who observers say was mrs helmsley's constant companion in later years, does seem to dominate her thoughts.

alvin rosenthal, her brother, was also left millions - on condition that he cares for trouble in mrs helmsley's absence.

strangely enough, leona turns out to be more generous in death than in life:

the bulk of the helmsley fortune will be go to charity. mrs helmsley stipulated that the proceeds from the sale of her homes and belongings, said to be worth billions, be given to the leona m and harry b helmsley charitable trust.

maybe only the little people pay taxes, but apparently death is for everyone.

fool me once…shame on…shame on…you? a fool me won’t get fooled again!

in your opinion, what’s the status of our democracy and the election process?

some people ask why we need to save our constitutional rights and our form of democracy. my response to that is to tell them to wake up, quickly. we live in a nation without laws for the vast majority of citizens. lawmaking is now for the benefit of the largest corporate and private interests. new laws use federal authority to preserve great wealth through the use of political power. just look at the department of justice. there’s not much room for the rest of us in the system. the vital democratic assumption that a majority or plurality of voters will prevail in any election is defunct.

what do you mean by that?

i have a saying, “we pretend to vote; they pretend to get elected.” how can you say that we really know who the “winners” and “losers” are of any given election when we see restrictive registration laws, voter suppression, and election fraud on a regular basis? a year ago, zogby polls showed that 40% to 55% of registered voters doubted the results of the 2004 presidential election. then there are the folks who consistently don’t vote. those elected face a crisis since the legitimacy of their elections and subsequent actions are challenged by a large segment of the public that doubts the process. this crisis of legitimacy is one of the many that they continue to ignore.

that comment about “winners” and “losers” is pretty serious.

it is. here are a few more. is the current occupant of the white house the elected leader or a squatter? just read urban legend and the follow-up series. the answer is obvious. is there corruption in the election process? the recent discovery that ballots in 56 of 88 ohio counties were destroyed should satisfy even the democratic national committee that election fraud was involved on a massive scale. the law was very clear about saving ballots for a certain period. time’s not up and they’re gone. that’s called – election fraud.

there may be no crying in baseball, but there is accessorizing

rodger a. payne tells us that, at least in the red sox dugout, there is such a thing as the fashion police:

the fashion police are real, and they could be coming after your favorite baseball manager. wednesday, during the 1st inning of a red sox-yankee game, boston manager terry francona was trying to decide whether his counterpart joe torre might order a bunt -- or perhaps a steal. the dangerous derek jeter had just hit a one out double.

then, the unthinkable happened:

a security agent for major league baseball came into the boston dugout and asked francona if he was wearing his uniform top underneath his pullover fleece. francona angrily showed the jersey top to the agent.

"i'm sure he was instructed," said francona. "the timing was incredible. unless this guy can put on a bunt play or something, he's got to stay ... out of the dugout. i've never seen anything like this before in my life. in the middle of the game, you have the fashion police. this is incredible. he made me show it. i was sort of in a hurry, because i thought jeter was going to steal third. i was trying to go do my job."

convenient, eh? as skippy international headquarters is located firmly in los angeles angels territory (and anaheim dodger territory), we have no dog in this fight. but we are proponents of fair play.

but the yankees swept the sox in their series, bringing them within 5 games of boston for the al east leader.

which makes the untimely interruption of the sox's manager by the bully-boy security agent seem more like a gop friday news dump rather than a minor mistake. is karl rove in charge of yankee stadium these days?

Thursday, August 30, 2007

puts a new meaning to "space probe"

the big stance senator probably couldn't get hired by the federal government, since they seem to be probing into sex lives.

jet propulsion laboratory scientists and engineers sued nasa and the california institute of technology on thursday, challenging extensive new background checks that the space exploration center and other federal agencies began requiring in the wake of the sept. 11 terror attacks.

the lawsuit says nasa is violating the constitution by calling on employees -- everyone from janitors to visiting professors -- to permit investigators to delve into medical, financial and past employment records, and to question friends and acquaintances about everything from their finances to sex lives. those who refuse could lose their jobs, the suit says.

...caltech was sued because it manages jpl for nasa and employs its staff. the suit also named the department of commerce, which is involved in promulgating federal identification standards.

griffin said that it was a "privilege to work within the federal system, not a right" and that he would carry out the order unless it was overturned in court, according to a video of the meeting obtained by the associated press.

..attorney dan stormer said the employees were being forced to "voluntarily" sign forms opening up every detail of their personal lives to federal scrutiny for two years whether or not they keep their jobs. - ap

working within the federal system a privilege and not a right? griffin should mention that to this administration.

we're cookin'

here in the united state of california. and we might not have enough "juice" to marinate ourselves in.

california's electricity grid managers warned that power is expected to be cut off today to large energy consumers as demand soars during the continuing heat wave.

...the california independent system operator, which oversees the power grid in most of the state, plans to declare a minor power emergency at 2 p.m. under a so-called stage 1 emergency, people are urged to conserve by turning off lights and avoid using nonessential appliances. - sfgate

much of the trouble we are seeing now in the mortgage markets now is coming from people not being able to meet their payments. but the problem of this rise in payments has only just barely started! many, many more mortgages reset through the rest of this year -- and then the number really takes off next year.

how many more mortgages reset next year than this year? go look at the chart of upcoming arm resets: calculated risk: arm reset charts. this is huge. we have only seen the smallest beginning of the problem. this is going to be really, really big next year. a really bad problem…

update - bonddad shows the same graph with some explanation, in this post.

u.s. home prices fell 3.2% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, standard & poor's reported tuesday.

it's the largest decline ever in the 20-year history of the case-shiller home price index.

a year ago, home prices were rising at a 7.5% pace nationally.

... meanwhile, prices fell 3.5% in the past year in 20 major cities and 4.1% in 10 major cities.

it's only the beginning. the psychology hasn't set in yet. what happens next is sellers hear this news and start to realize that the game is up. so they'll start to accept that they have to lower prices if they are going to sell. and this doesn't even take into account that foreclosures are going to start serious price drops soon.

caucus? he doesn't even know us!

time is reporting that john edwards' work in iowa is beginning to pay off:

john edwards is betting that a strong showing in the iowa caucuses will catapult him into national contention, and so far his strategy in the state is on track. a new time poll of likely iowa caucus goers, taken a week after edwards' seven-day, 31-stop bus tour of the state, gives edwards 29% of the vote, five points ahead of hillary clinton and seven ahead of barack obama. this latest time poll of 519 likely iowa democratic caucus goers finds that, among the so-called "second-tier" candidates, bill richardson has 11%, with joe biden at 5%, dennis kucinich with 2%, and chris dodd at 1%. (the poll was conducted august 22 ? 25, 2007. the margin of error is approximately +/- 5 percentage points.)

with the field limited to the top four candidates, edwards's lead over clinton widens, to 32% to 24%. obama was at 22%, with bill richardson at 13%. iowa polls can be unreliable, since only 5% to 10% of voters go to the caucuses; some other recent surveys have edwards in a dead heat with clinton and obama. the race remains wide open, but edwards's position remains strong.

for edwards, the poll has some less welcome news as well. so far, at least, his attempts to portray himself as the real change agent in the race — the one who wants to slam the door on lobbyists and other "washington insiders" — isn't paying off. obama beats him by 35% to 25% on the question of who "will take on special interests in washington." (clinton trailed with 19%.) iowa democrats seem to like edwards more for who he is than for what he says; they call him the "most likable" and the one who best understands their concerns, but his toss-out-the-insiders message hasn't stuck.

the poll also finds some not-unexpected but still not-too-good news for mrs. clinton:

iowa caucus goers see strengths and weaknesses in each candidate. among the top four candidates:

the passion of the skippi

a red-necked wallaby named "skippi" that had escaped from a wildlife park in bad wurzach on aug. 5 has finally been captured after three weeks on the hop.

the wallaby escaped by slipping under a gate at the wildlife park in the german state of baden-württemberg. while on the lam, reports of skippi sightings led to a cult-like following in the press...

on aug. 22, skippi leapt back onto front pages when police found the "flattened" remains of a rednecked-wallaby on a highway near memmingen, the victim of a truck accident.

readers of this space remember when we mocked skippi's owner for her case of denial. we are happy to say we were wrong:

at that time, gerda leichtle, the head of the animal park, refused to believe the reports. "that was not our skippi," she told reporters on that day, basing her belief on a skippi sighting from two days previous in a too-distant town.

time would prove leichtle's faith well-founded. two days later, a kangaroo-like animal was suspected as the cause of another traffic accident. when leichtle came to the scene of the accident, she recognized the animal as skippi. when she tried to capture it, though, it bounced away back into freedom.

on monday morning, leichtle received a call from a person in leutkirch, near ravensburg, who claimed that skippi was hopping around in a nearby cornfield. leichtle came to the field and, this time, skippi didn't get away.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

skippy's wednesday nite music club

ads entertainment

the ari fleischer swift boat group is having some trouble getting their patriotic ads onto television:

but recently, a new conservative group called freedom’s watch, which is backed by prominent republicans, has been challenging the anti-war groups with its own pressure campaign. freedom’s watch began a $15 million advertising effort on aug. 22 meant to shore up support for the president’s iraq policy among lawmakers who might be wavering.

the group planned to broadcast television and radio ads, which will air in 60 congressional districts, to coincide with the run-up to the release of a report from gen. david petraeus that will evaluate progress in iraq. but, it appears that not every network is willing to run the spots.

just today, john hinderaker of the conservative power line blog, noted that the group “placed its ads on fox and cnn, but cnbc and msnbc have refused to run” them. bradley a. blakeman, the president of freedom’s watch, send a letter to nbc asking for an explanation.

“your history of airing other issue advocacy advertisements makes the denial of fw advertisements troubling and raises the issue of whether your denial is based on an editorial disagreement with fw’s message,” mr. blakeman wrote in the letter to the network. “these ads are about important issues that will shape our national security policies for years to come. these ads present a point of view that your viewers are not now receiving.”

we are tired of those kids on saturday nite live tricking us into believing it's really dick cheney making those funny faces

the moderate voice catches msnbc quoting a parody news site as the real thing, and then refusing to cop to it:

msnbc found that out recently, when it quoted a great quote on the michael vicks case by the rev. al sharpton. only it turned out not to be a quote by the rev. al sharpton. here’s the part as quoted by msnbc, in reference to the michael vicks case:

“if the police caught brett favre (a white quarterback for the green bay packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other, would they bust him? of course not,” sharpton wrote tuesday on his personal blog .

we can’t give you the graphic since work is being done on this site and our photo/image sizer is not operating. but click here to view the page and the msnbc correction (be sure to scroll down from the dolphin photos).

how did msnbc explain it?

by running a correction saying the quoted sharpton site was a “hoax.”

wrong. newsgroper is a supremely delicious parody site that anyone except someone who believes in the easter bunny will conclude is a parody — perfectly done. it’s sort of like a fake huffington post.

but rather than admit “we put that on the site without really checking the website source as a whole — sorry!” or “we made a mistake in not looking at the post a bit more carefully but mistakes do happen!” msnbc’s website writer called it “hoax” which implies newsgroper set up to trick people.

newsgroper is set up to trick people as much as mad magazine is set up to trick people. its a treasure chest of parody that anyone who takes the time to look at will realize is just that…

we must agree with joe. if you are stupid enough to think "star wars" was filmed in outerspace, you can't blame george lucas for being deceitful when you find out otherwise.

of course, both the moderate voice and skippy have been the recipients of good fortune when msnbc have been fooled before. devoted readers of this space may remember years ago when msnbc was tricked into using joe gandelman as an on-air expert for blogs during the ron and monica travelling conundrum show. and during that same show, joe correctly used the phrase "blogtopia."

down the pentrose lane

two years ago today

it was two years ago today that katrina hit n'awlins with her full force. the levees broke and people panicked, having no leadership or help from their government. america watched in horror as we left one of our own cities, one of our most beautiful cities, submerge under the waves of apathy and crumbling infrastructure.

as with all things katrina, the gang at first draft are doing the best job of covering the still-continuing tragedy of this horrible event. too many good posts to link to one specifically; go by and see what scout prime, holden, athenae and their compatriots have to say about america's biggest self-made disaster.

we agree with digby

conservatives have always supported intrusive government, they have always endangered americans by aggravating other countries, and they have always been very happy to collect taxes from ordinary working people and use that tax money to fatten the malefactors of great wealth while depriving the rest of us of our freedoms. those same people conned a number of libertarian-minded young people in the '70s and '80s into believing that conservatism was liberalism and vice-versa because a few intolerant lefties went overboard in their objections to morally reprehensible expressions of racism and sexism. i would have thought these kids would have grown up by now and realized that they're still paying taxes but under the republicans they're getting less for them - and that's before the bill for all that "strong defense" comes due. how dumb they have to be to think it makes sense to be both republican and gay after all this just doesn't bear thinking about.

6 feet of water in the streets of evangeline

...the answer to new orleans's levee woes is painfully obvious: money and willpower. common sense dictates that the endangered areas -- if repopulated (and that is a big if) -- demand levees that can sustain category 5 storms. it's a national obligation. entire blocks are moldering away while the federal government lifts only a cursory hand to reverse the desultory trend.

unfortunately, one of the biggest misperceptions the american public harbors is that katrina was a week-long catastrophe. in truth, it's better to view it as an era. remember, the dust bowl of the 1930s lasted eight or nine years. we're still in the middle of the katrina saga. - washington post

a classic from the skippy vault

we are not going to get into whether it's ethical or not to "out" people who are "in" the "closet," or whether it's "ethical" to "use" someone's sexual "preference" in a political "action." we don't even want to "discuss" the "overuse" of "quotation marks."

what we will do, however, is report that new west network is reporting that mike rogers (wasn't he on m*a*s*h?) from blogactive is reporting that anti-homosexual activist publican senator from idaho larry craig (wasn't he on m*a*s*h) is himself a closeted homosexual:

mike rogers, who calls himself "the nation’s leading gay activist blogger" has just finished a nationally-broadcast interview on the ed schultz radio show in which he alleges that idaho republican senator larry craig has engaged in same-sex sexual activity.

senator craig’s office flatly rejected the claims. "the senator says this story is absolutely ridiculous – almost laughable," said press secretary sid smith. “it has no basis in fact.”

2 years ago tomorrow

it's been two years since hurricane katrina devastated the gulf coast region, and still there are tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scattered across the country in fema apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any of the 77,000 rental units destroyed in new orleans have been rebuilt. support the gulf coast recovery bill of 2007 by signing the petition at whenthesaints.org

please hang up and try again

on august 29, 2005, hurricane katrina reached the gulf coast, and the bankruptcy of the bush administration’s conservative ideology was laid bare for all to see. but in the two years since, those affected by katrina have been left in a continuing storm of hardship while the gulf coast has been turned into a playground for right-wing ideologues and republican cronies. we are exposing the realities and holding accountable president bush and the conservative standard-bearers responsible for this national disgrace.

president bush promised to “do what it takes” and “stay as long as it takes” to help the people of new orleans and the gulf coast to rebuild. read our latest report, which not only documents how bush failed to live up to that promise but underscores why his conservative ideology cannot meet the challenge of creating a more prosperous and equitable community out of the rubble.

quote of the day

how many more of them will have to get arrested soliciting sex in public toilets before people finally cop to the fact that republicans are a bunch of nasty old wealthy queens who cheat on their wives with other men and who can’t under any circumstances be trusted around teenage boys?

u.s. sen. larry craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct this month after his arrest in a minneapolis airport men’s room by an undercover officer who said craig was sending signals that he wanted to have sex.

craig said monday his actions were misconstrued by police and that he should not havepleaded guilty to the charges.

"at the time of this incident, i complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," craig said in a release. "i was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. i should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. in hindsight, i should not have pled guilty. i was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

craig agreed today to resign as the u.s. senate co-chairman of mitt romney’s presidential campaign. craig served as co-chair with robert bennett of utah. “he did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision," said romney’s communications director, matt rhoades.

keith olbermann is smarter than a fifth grader

the upshot: in total viewers it beat "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" on fox. but finished behind "60 minutes" and "america's funniest videos." 4,146,000 total viewers watched.

countdown finished fourth in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos.in a post last night , i asked how olbermann's nbc show played in the plains. aaron barnhart of that plain-worthy state, missouri wrote about it in his blog tvbarn.com.

rip our cousin skippi the escaped kangaroo

an escaped kangaroo called skippi, who had been on the run for three weeks, has been run over by a car in southern germany, police said on wednesday.

skippi's body was found on a road about 25 miles from the farm he fled in early august, said a spokesman for police in the southern town of krumbach.

'i don't think it was a deliberate suicide,' the spokesman said, giving us the benefit of his scalpel-sharp forensic insight into kangaroo behaviour. 'he was just hopping about.'

the only thing sadder than skippi's death is his owner's denial:

the spokesman said the owner had declined to identify the body, insisting that it could not be skippi. however, police said the corpse matched their description. moreover, no other kangaroos had been reported missing in the area.

tbd syndrome strikes again!

this is a sad day in blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase! but at this rate, soon blogtopia will only be us and mad kane!

[ed. note: on a personal level, we'd like to express our deep appreciation for what max has done for blogging in the past 5 years. max was one of the first blogs to link to this humble space, and has been relentless in his pursuit of explaining complicated economic concerns to dummies like us in easy-to-understand layman's terms. we wish max good luck in his future concerns, and also to the continuation of maxspeak! which will undergo some changes, both in personnel and format.take care, max!]

oprah bumps bride for obama?

say that one 5 times fast.

oprah wants her guests for her barack obama fundraiser to stay at a tony resort, and may have used her muscles on a wedding party to get the rooms she needed,reports tmz.

according to page six oprah wanted out-of-towners for the big september 8th benefit to stay at the san ysidro ranch, but it was already booked for a wedding. "oprah's people have been calling the bride to either move or vacate some of the rooms to accommodate her guest list," says a post source. "the bride, an attorney, is not budging." - post chronicle and nypost

go go gonzo

attorney general alberto r. gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before congress, has resigned. a senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in washington. - nytimes

equal and opposite reaction

the nfl suspended him indefinitely and without pay friday after his plea agreement was filed. merely associating with gamblers can trigger a lifetime ban under the league's personal conduct policy.

association with gamblers can trigger a lifetime ban, so i guess that thoughtlessly (or worse, with forethought) exploiting, hurting and killing creatures unable to even tell someone they're being abused should get that going, too.

it's so much easier to get up in the morning when you expect someone to be punished for what they've done, and then they actually are punished.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

environmental stories sunday

cancer in iraq vets raises possibility of toxic exposure. after serving in vietnam nearly 40 years ago the tucson soldier was called back to active duty in iraq. now he joins the growing ranks of sickened and dying iraq war vets who believe exposure to toxic poisons are behind their illnesses. - tucson arizona daily star

troubled waters at camp lejeune. from 1957 to 1987, civilians, marines and residents drank, cooked with, bathed in and swam in water contaminated by industrial solvents at camp lejeune, a marine corps base in jacksonville. - wilmington star-news

bluefin tuna numbers dwindling. giant bluefin tuna fisheries in the gulf of maine are in danger of collapse, with the number of fish declining markedly in recent years, according to university of new hampshire researchers. - manchester union leader

fema orders limits on development in flood-plains. the federal emergency management agency -- alarmed by the rising cost of federally subsidized flood insurance -- is directing towns to strictly limit development in what it deems "flood hazard" areas. - bergen county record,

skippy & the gang had a lovely table at willie's tavern in bedminster, nj (take a look at the third picture down on the virtual tour of willie's on their website [ed.note: or look at the pic below]...yes, the room with the wallpaper...that was the bloggers' room...and after an hour of raucous laughter and dick jokes, it was literally their room exclusively, since they drove out the nice waspy family with the kids, and everyone else).

luckily very little was said about politics or blogging...it was mostly a "can you top this" rapid-fire joke fest, with a little bit of getting to know each other thrown in (tho both dbk and tata had attending last year's bloggers' breakfast at carnegie's deli when the skippy's came to new york).

tho skippy tried to avoid in-laws by spending several hours at willie's, it turned out no in-laws came around, and poor mrs. skippy spent the afternoon by herself in warren. not as bad as it sounds, but still...no walk in the park.

it's not mr. blossom making these questionable calls

it just might be the clinton campaign.

...but the survey didn’t end there. as eness-potter’s patience continued to wane, the caller started into the negative questions about clinton’s opponents. although he cut the caller off fairly quickly after he saw where the caller was headed, he recalled two questions -- one about sen. barack obama and the other about former sen. john edwards -- that were particularly memorable.

on sen. obama, the caller’s question had to do with the war: paraphrased, it was “sen. obama boasts of his consistent opposition to the war, but he has contradicted himself by voting for appropriation bills to fund it. does this make you approve of sen. obama more or less?”

and on edwards, the subject was, predictably, about his $400 haircut a month or so ago.

it was roughly at that point in the call that eness-potter excused himself and hung up –- after the caller admitted to him that the survey was commissioned by the clinton campaign.

... a similar message poll that went out to voters in new hampshire has been documented on other blogs. alex forshaw, for instance, was able to trace the firm conducting the survey, which identified itself as "psa interviewing," to mark penn, a top advisor to sen. clinton and a previous advisor to former president bill clinton. when asked if the call eness-potter received was attributed by the caller to "psa interviewing," eness-potter said "that sounds right."- iowa independent

florida can't and doesn't count

in an effort to not front-load the primary process, the dnc has voted to strip florida of its delegates to the 2008 convention, unless the state delays its primary by at least a week. washpost:

the democratic national committee sought to seize control of its unraveling nominating process yesterday, rejecting pleas from state party leaders and cracking down on florida for scheduling a jan. 29 presidential primary.

the dnc's rules and bylaws committee, which enforces party rules, voted yesterday morning to strip florida of all its delegates to the 2008 democratic national convention in denver -- the harshest penalty at its disposal…

by making an object lesson of florida, democrats hope to squelch other states' efforts to move their voting earlier, which have created chaos in the primary structure that the national party has established. but the decision to sanction such a pivotal, vote-rich state has risks.

for instance, there could be a boycott of orange juice at the convention. and no alligators, either.

considering how clearly and easily the vote count went in florida the last two elections, it should come as no surprise that the national dems don't want florida's results to lead so early in the primary process.

in related news, georgia has decided to move its primary up to tomorrow, and missouri has elected to go back in time and have its primary last fourth of july.

ihack

the iphone is no longer the exclusive purview of a t & t, at least, not if you have a sodering gun and 500 spare hours of hacking time. chitrib:

hackers got credit for another victory friday, as news spread that a new jersey teenager broke into his iphone and reconfigured it so the machine could make calls via a wireless carrier other than at&t.

the iphone, available since late june, is supposed to work only with at&t, which has a five-year exclusive contract. but limiting the touchscreen phone to a single carrier immediately was seen by many tech-savvy tinkerers as an invitation to assert their control over the device…

so it's no surprise that 17-year-old george hotz's accomplishment in making his iphone run on t-mobile's network joins a host of claims by other hackers manipulating the apple device…

to do what hotz accomplished takes plenty of skill -- and time. hotz said he spent 500 hours on the project...

according to interviews, hotz said he used soldering tools and software to hack the iphone. he said the two iphones he hacked, one of which he's put up for bid on ebay, have all their features intact except the visual voice-mail function.

hotz's sudden popularity was noticed by major television networks friday. he was picked up by a limousine for a trip to new york city for an interview with nbc, abc and other broadcasters, his father said.

too bad he wasn't picked up by a taxi. then the headline would be "hacker takes hack."

aWol to finally show up in n'awlins

awol will make a speech to commemorate the two year anniversary of katrina. asspress:

president bush will return to the gulf coast next week, where hard times and resentment linger two years after hurricane katrina's massive strike.

bush will fly into new orleans on tuesday after giving a speech about the iraq war to the american legion convention in reno, nev. on wednesday, the anniversary of the storm, he is expected to examine recovery efforts in new orleans and the mississippi gulf coast.

monkeys in africa communicate with humans...with their middle fingers...

the monkeys are more afraid of young men than women and children, with the bolder individuals throwing stones and chasing the women from their farms. in an attempt to scare the monkeys away, the women are now wearing their husband's clothing, but the wily monkeys are not fooled.

"when we come to chase the monkeys away, we are dressed in trousers and hats, so that we look like men," said nachu resident lucy njeri. "but the monkeys can tell the difference and they don't run away from us and point at our breasts. they just ignore us and continue to steal the crops."

further, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women, according to the residents.

"the monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. we are afraid that they will sexually harass us," said njeri.

while it was not unusual for the monkeys to harass the women and be less afraid of them than they are of the men, according to the kenyan wildlife service, the service had never before heard of monkeys making sexually explicit gestures as a form of communication to humans. despite their new problems with the monkeys, it is a criminal offence to harm or kill any of them, so the besieged villagers must figure out a way to outwit the monkeys instead.

unfortunately, the monkeys have even been killing the residents' livestock and dogs, evading traps and avoiding poisoned food...

generalissimo fidel castro is still not dead

watching polos opuestos on channel 22 here in miami, and the word is that the rumors of fidel's death are just that. host maria elvira salazar interviewed miami mayor manny diaz, and the mayor emphasized that there have been no movement of law enforcement to handle the rumored situation. most importantly, diaz said that the city is maintaining contact with the federal government and that the feds would notify the city once they receive the official word. there have been no unusual movement of coast guard personnel or vessels either, according to diaz.

jesus marzo fernandez, ex-high ranking cuban official, was on the set of the show and stated that he has been in contact with several cuban officials and they confirmed that there is no unusual movement of cuban military forces. they showed a clip from tonight's cuban tv mesa redonda program which was showing regular programming (with none other than miami resident and castro agent max lesnik in the audience!).

marzo did say something interesting, that today's rumors did not come from havana, but from someone much closer to the exile community, likely in miami, and that havana is just fine with the rumors since they make the exile community look foolish.

they don't do much for blogtopia's reputation, either! and yes, we coined that phrase, and we're not particularly proud of it at this point!

thanks for not smoking...pot

via c&l, we are reminded by the largest minority why america doesn't tolerate pot use...it's bad for (big) business:

hemp is a sustainable and environmentally friendly crop which contains less than 1 percent of thc. it is used in skin products, as fertilizer, medicine, building material, fabric, paper, fuel, and can be converted into fully biodegradable plastics. the united states is the only industrialized nation where hemp is not an established crop, much to the delight of oil, coal, and chemical industries which benefit from the ban.

cultivation of hemp is currently illegal under us federal law thanks to the lobbying of the aforementioned groups. the california narcotic officers’ association has testified that the passage of such a bill would only make law enforcement more difficult because farmers might hide illegal marijuana in their legal hemp fields. i could be wrong, but it seems like this association is either admitting that they’re too incompetent to do their jobs correctly, or they’re making the case for the legalization of marijuana so that they’re not forced to make the distinction. either way, i say let the layoffs begin.

we'd do something about it, but we keep forgetting...where's that bag of cheetos?

and now, i bust my little sister's chops...

she sent me an e-mail that's been popping up here and there among the internets. it was sent to her from, of all places, the affton chamber of commerce, which is in missouri. my sister lives in massachusetts, and has lived all of her life in new england. therefore, i don't understand why the affton, missouri chamber of commerce is sending e-mails to my sister.

however, i'm positive that whoever sent it to her is deeply religious -- not to mention very gullible. here's some of the e-mail:

if you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

i most certainly would. i would also recommend she move into a room with rubber walls and start wearing coats with no sleeves -- that woman is crazy.

then they were joined by hizhonor, gavin newsom, and mrs. schultz commented that the mayor would have to change ties, because he was giving a tribute to barry bonds later and the mayor needed an orange one to match the baseball franchise colors.

"no one has an orange tie" the mayor apparently said.

then these high paid, well connected insider pols see the waiter and notice his tie. it was orange.

they then took his tie.

bill press was relaying this story like it was oh, so funny and look how insider it is.

i want to know if they paid the poor waiter for his tie and if they gave him an amazing tip for basically humiliating him by taking his clothing.

breaking! blog spreads rumors that castro is dead!

update: here's the deal and what i know up to now, as of 1500 hours, august 24, 2007:

first, south florida law enforcement is on alert. an eoc (emergency operations center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in homestead.

im also told local and state government agencies have food, bottled water, and other necessities - valued in the millions - stored and/or staged in homestead at or near the eoc.

i am presently verifying whether coast guard and dhs and border patrol agencies are on high alert. (verified 01445)

local news stations are abuzz, mostly on reports very much like the above, with massive law enforcemnt mobilizations throughout dade county.

local emergency medical services notified to be on alert by law enforcement agencies.

im told - and still awaiting confirmation - that buses in havana have been recalled to terminals and that cuban workers have been sent home. (still unconfirmed 1500)

again, i am loathe to publish the title as i did in this post, but i would be remiss in not telling you all what i know, right now. all of my sources are good but the cuban government, as we all know, is masterful at controlling media and information and we should not rule out that this and last friday's "news" have been and are feelers to see what the reactions are here, as well as who reacts within the island. if we've been duped we've been duped. if not, then bust out the champagne.

once again, these may all be rumor to discredit us and other media sources. all we can do is exactly what we've been doing for quite some time now: wait and see.

josh gets email

if you'd stop for a moment, you would be exposed to the reality that clinton is dominating the debates, dominating the polls. on the ground here in california, she has in place a growing organization that i guarantee you will crush any opposition - democratic primary, or general election against the repugs.

it's time the blogosphere, and people like you, began to clean up your act. stop acting so reactively. and perhaps realize that your unique hits aren't necessarily a measure of your credibility. - mail from josh's mailbag

well..you can tell the author of the email doesn't know what he/she is talking about. they don't use the more appropriate term blogtopia! (ysctp).

liz taylor's 7th husband

sen. john warner's suggestion that some troops leave iraq by the end of the year has roiled the white house, with administration officials saying they've asked the influential republican to clarify that he has not broken politically with president bush.

but warner said friday that he stands by his remarks and that he did not object to how his views have been characterized. - ap

something smells in baghdad

and it isn't just the politics. it's the water. the "drinking" water.

...the municipal water system, which had been neglected under saddam hussein, has failed to significantly improve since the u.s. invasion in march 2003. broken water and sewage lines allow contents to intermingle.

...quraish alkasi, president of the society for iraqi surgeons, says baghdad's public water supply is a health hazard. people who drink it, especially children, have reported diarrhea, bacterial infections and renal problems associated with water that is too high in salt, alkasi says.

residents should treat tap water at home or drink bottled water, he says.

hashim hassan, deputy general director of the baghdad municipal water center, says the capital's water filtration system draws from the tigris river and was good 15 years ago but is now old and weak.

the city needs 925 million gallons of water daily, but the treatment plant can pump only 687 million gallons, hassan says. - ustoady

how many morons does it take to screw up a quagmire?

canadian police on undercover provacateurs: we admit it, eh?

readers of this space remember our examination of the youtube video showing unwelcomed masked protesters trying to stir things up during a peaceful demonstration at the north american leadership conference.

the quebec police force now admits that the three trouble-makers were policemen. cbc news:

quebec provincial police admitted thursday that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the north american leaders summit in montebello, que.

however, the police force denied allegations its undercover officers were there on monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence.

"at no time did the police of the sûreté du québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts," the police force said in french in a news release. "it is not in the police force's policies, nor in its strategies, to act in that manner.

oh yeah. masks and rocks definitely do not imply criminal acts. and we love this instance of, who are you going to believe, me or your lying youtube video:

police said the three were told to monitor protesters who were not peacefully demonstrating to prevent any violent incidents, but they were called out as undercover agents when they refused to throw objects.

if you watch the video, the three were repeatedly admonished to put the rocks down and leave the line. they refused, and that's when they were called out as undercover agents.

as always, we go to our three canadian blog buddies to bring home the canadian bacon on stories north of the border.

liberal catnip has a video of cbc's news story of the surete's admission;

and the reaction doesn't even cover the story, but they are talking about the california electoral college deciding whether or not to split the vote in the presidential election, so, go check them out, because it's also a good blog (and to be fair, it's only the editor and founder of the reaction, michael j.w. stickings, who is canadian...our good buddy creature from state of the day is associate editor, and as american as we are).

addendum: dawg's blawg has some great still shots of the provacateurs unmasked (captured from the youtube vid). plus a comprehensive list of blogs talking about this story.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

who thinks we ought to bring the troops home by christmas?

sen. john warner, a virginia republican, said thursday that a pullout was needed to spur iraqi leaders to action.

he has recommended bush announce the beginning of a u.s. withdrawal in mid-september, after a report is released from the top u.s. officials in iraq, and that those troops should be back in the united states by christmas.

"in my humble judgment, that would get everyone's attention -- the attention that is not being paid at this time," warner said.

4. do you favor a withdrawal of all united states military from iraq within the next six months? (republicans only)

yes 51%

no 39%

undecided 10%

yep -- a majority of iowa republicans wants all the troops out of iraq in six months.

perhaps this partly explains why the most visible pro-war repubican -- john mccain -- is in fourth place in the state. the poll finds that mitt romney is leading the gop pack with 31%, with fred thompson in second (15%), rudy giuliani in third (13%) and mccain with a paltry eight percent.

netroots - 1, fox noise - 0

score another win for blogtopia and yes, we coined that pharse. the democratic debate that was sponsored by the congressional black caucus and to be broadcast exclusively on fox noise has been cancelled due to lack of interest. asspress:

fox news and a black political group say they will not hold a sept. 23 democratic presidential debate in detroit, which the leading candidates already were planning to skip.

a new date had not yet been set, fox news spokesman michael murphy said thursday.

the campaigns of u.s. sens. hillary rodham clinton and barack obama and former sen. john edwards had said they would not participate in the debate. opponents have criticized fox as biased against democrats.

the debate, co-sponsored by the congressional black caucus political education and leadership institute, was to have been held at the fox theatre.

institute chairman u.s. rep. bennie thompson, d-miss., said in a statement on the group's web site that the "overwhelming number of party presidential debates has created a scheduling challenge."

skippy himself sent $50 to sen. edwards to reward him for being first to pull out of that debate (and now skippy keeps getting more emails asking for more money...go figure!) and steve bensen at c&l reinforces the idea that "the netroots worked very hard on this, and deserve a lot of credit for the outcome."

now what we hope doesn't happen is that the hardly-ever-right tries to spin this as discrimination against the congressional black caucus (tho in light of recent efforts to protray michael vick as the vick-tim in his trevails, we would not be surprised). after all, equal rights doesn't mean never getting called on bone-headed ideas.

skippy's thursday nite music club

fans of the new dr. who series will recognize billie piper as rose tyler, the doctor's companion from seasons one and two. but not as many know that before becoming a sci-fi television actress, billie was britain's answer to britney spears (and billie's fans would insist that britney pretty much stole her act from billie)...

all the news that's fit to put into little tiny pixels that refresh at a rate of once every 1/36th of a second

a progressive friend of mrs. skippy's sent her this.

we are not sure about this premise...and do not construe our presentation of this youtube video as an endorsement of this organization...

but...

it is an interesting idea (if it works), and laura flanders of working assets is a board member (see her at about 6:18 into the vid). so if these people can indeed put together a cyber-network of world news funded on tax-deductible contributions from viewers instead of corporations and political parties, it would not be a bad thing.

mitt out compunction

mitt "tie a yellow lab to the old chevy van" romney apparently has a big enough mouth for both feet. the washpost reports he flip-flops so much on abortion you could wear him to the beach:

former massachusetts governor mitt romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.

in an interview with a nevada television station on tuesday, romney said roe. v. wade should be abolished and vowed to "let states make their own decision in this regard." on aug. 6, he told abc's george stephanopoulos that he supports a human life amendment to the constitution that would protect the unborn.

"i do support the republican platform, and i do support that being part of the republican platform, and i'm pro-life," romney said in the abc interview, broadcast days before his victory among conservative iowa voters in the ames straw poll.

now, cloning usually makes someone dizzy for a spell, and possibly thirsty for a week or two, but it doesn't usually change their opinions on things. and, why would someone clone mitt romney anyway? and did it change his mind on other issues, like what kind of ice cream he likes? (now he wants double chocolate chip, cuz he's cloned. see, it's a clone joke. send in the clones, there ought to be clones...)

those wacky iraqis

tbogg wonders why, 8 months after the fact, all of a sudden the story of the poor iraqi boy who was set on fire has become national headlines here in the us. it's not as if there's a shortage of violent stories in this country.

doggerel

since everybody and their brother are writing op-ed pieces these days, why not jane hamsher's poodle kobe? from mutts against mitt:

okay let’s just get this out of the way up front. nobody has peed on more bushes, sniffed more dog butt or chased more squirrels than me hollering “screw michael vick.” i don’t get the guy. who gets off watching dogs tear each other apart, and then hangs them if they underperform? he’s got some serious problems.

but in light of the naacp’s call today that after michael vick has paid his debt he ought to be allowed to return to football, i thought i would add my two cents. and i think the whole thing needs to be put in context.

michael vick is a football player. mitt romney and rudy giuliani are running for president. mitt romney blithely tortured his dog by tying it to the top of his car for 12 hours until it defecated down the back window under the stress, then thought of himself as a real smart feller because he grabbed a hose and washed it off. that particular incident of cruelty and callousness towards animals barely even charted with our elite media.

then there’s judy giuliani, who demonstrated medical staples on dogs for fun and profit who were killed afterwards. i really just do not see that she did anything that wasn’t just as bad as michael vick, with the exception that the medical industrial complex managed to buy her way into legality. it’s still cruel and immoral as hell, but we really didn’t hear much about that when the vultures were circling michael vick, did we? it would have been the perfect time to mention it, a wonderful correlating story, but we got…zip. nada. nothing.

why, one might ask, are two people engaged in the race for the nation’s highest office not given more scrutiny on this front than a professional football player? don’t get me wrong, i’m not defending michael vick’s actions. and i don’t know that the nfl, a company with a brand to think about, wants to be associated with animal cruelty in the future after vick has done his time. but if that’s the case, shouldn’t the united states of america be a bit more worried about electing a president who openly embraces similar behavior? because while rudy didn’t exactly exterminate the brutes himself, i didn’t hear him utter a word against it. (does anybody think he wouldn’t?)

[full disclosure: skippy has eaten lunch w/kobe, while jane was hanging around, too, more than once. kobe is an honorable dog, and, while he likes to sniff assholes, at least that makes him qualified to recognize one when he smells it.]

general information

ret. maj. gen. john batiste, conservative by nature, military by career choice, wrote an op-ed piece that neither the wsj or the moonie times would print...because it's none too flattering about the war effort.

as a conservative, i am all for a strong military and setting the conditions for success. america goes to war to win. i am not anti-war and am committed to winning the struggle against world-wide islamic extremism. but, i am outraged that elected officials of my own party do not comprehend the predicament we are in with a strategy in the middle east that lacks focus and is all but relying on the military to solve the diplomatic, political, and economic rubik’s cube that defines iraq. our dysfunctional interagency process in washington dc lacks leadership and direction. many conservatives in congress have allowed the charade to go on for too long.

it is disappointing that so many elected representatives of my party continue to blindly support the administration rather than doing what is in the best interests of our country. traditionally, my party has maintained a conservative view on questions regarding our armed forces. for example, we commit our military only when absolutely necessary. in the same way conservatives have always argued against government excess in social programs, the lives our young men and women in uniform, our most precious resource, are not to be used on wars of choice or for nation building. the military theorist carl von clausewitz taught us that wars are to be fought only as a last resort–the extension of politics by other means.

these principles are apparently not understood by many of the republicans in our congress. besides the fact that many conservatives allowed president bush to jump head-first into a war of choice, the bullheadedness of congressional republicans who argue for staying the course runs contrary to conservative values. many politicians of my party continue to argue that we must liberally use up whatever our military has left. bottom line, the republican congress of the last six years abrogated its constitutional duty and share in the responsibility for the debacle in iraq.

what do you bet this op-ed won't get the same sort of coverage like the one written by ken pollack and little orphan o'hanlon ("the sun will come out tomorrow")?

stifling dissent for dummies

it turns out that it wasn't just a snarky joke that the white house had a manual for keeping protesters out of awol's sight.

two protesters who were arrested in a charleston presidential event for refusing to remove their anti-awol shirts sued the government and settled for $80,000 out of court. in the process, this manual was turned up in discovery. washpost:

a white house manual that came to light recently gives presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of "deterring potential protestors" from president bush's public appearances around the country.

among other things, any event must be open only to those with tickets tightly controlled by organizers. those entering must be screened in case they are hiding secret signs. any anti-bush demonstrators who manage to get in anyway should be shouted down by "rally squads" stationed in strategic locations. and if that does not work, they should be thrown out…the "presidential advance manual," dated october 2002 with the stamp "sensitive -- do not copy," was released under subpoena to the american civil liberties union as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of two people arrested for refusing to cover their anti-bush t-shirts at a fourth of july speech at the west virginia state capitol in 2004. the techniques described have become familiar over the 6 1/2 years of bush's presidency, but the manual makes it clear how organized the anti-protest policy really is.

the lawsuit was filed by jeffery and nicole rank, who attended the charleston event wearing shirts with the word "bush" crossed out on the front; the back of his shirt said "regime change starts at home," while hers said "love america, hate bush." members of the white house event staff told them to cover their shirts or leave, according to the lawsuit. they refused and were arrested, handcuffed and briefly jailed before local authorities dropped the charges and apologized. the federal government settled the first amendment case last week for $80,000, but with no admission of wrongdoing.

ny repubbb accuses darrell hammond of setting him up

well, not really darrell hammond specifically, but roger stone, who got caught with his voice down (as opposed to his pants down...that's another story) says that it was not him, but someone else, perhaps using technology to "mimic his voice" in an abusive and profane phone message to bernard spitzer, the 83-year old father of ny gov elliot spitzer. guardian unlimited:

a prominent political consultant for the state senate republicans agreed to resign wednesday after reports surfaced that he had made a threatening phone call to gov. eliot spitzer's father.

roger stone, who in the 1970s worked on president nixon's re-election effort and has also done work for presidents bush and reagan, denied making the call.

stone told the associated press he was ``set up.'' he said the phone number cited by bernard spitzer's lawyers is his, but the apartment is owned by a spitzer fundraiser and someone else could have gotten inside to make the call or used technology to mimic his voice and number.

republican senate majority leader joseph bruno said stone was still asked to resign and sever connections with the state senate republican campaign committee because the allegations could ``only serve as a distraction from the real issues.''

if you want to hear the call for yourself, the nytimes has an mp3 of it (nytimes & sex scandal links thanks to down w/tyranny).

reached for comment, darrell hammond denied it was him mimicking stone. "it sounds more like rich little to me," he said. "little never could get inflection right. every voice he does sounds like nixon or sullivan."

we agree with booman

a list of core bush dogs is as follows, though as i'll explain in a bit, i'm sure we'll be expanding the bush dog pool as the fall congressional period begins. chris has a lot more stats on who these people are on his post here...

so far, tim walz and jim costa have been profiled. if you have a few hours and know one of these members, grab them and do a profile on your blog or on a diary here or elsewhere. and put the link in the comments so i can update our list. there's no limit on the number of profiles per member, this is about conversation and education, so the more views the better. you can defend your member, if you think the criticism is unfair.

when we're done doing these profiles, we can begin to track these members, engage in online advertising to let their constituents know their record, and/or help local activists in their districts. this is going to be a completely open process, and as votes come up this fall, we won't hesitate to add new bush dogs or honorary bush dog titles based on political games played by leadership. i've had conversations with sources in the house who think that this wasn't the fault of the bush dogs, even though they were the ones who voted for fisa. so fine. there's more than enough wankery to go around.

already, there's a contempt vote in the house that i'm going to watch closely, and of course, there's the petraeus pr ploy. so grab a member from this list and profile him (all but two are men). and i'm sure, based on the newfound aggressiveness we're seeing among liberal advocacy groups like the aclu, that the work we do in profiling these members will be useful to other progressive groups as well.

we have not listed the bush dogs here, but recommend you surf on over to open left to see it, and take part.

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